Abel to Yzerman

This week, TSN ranks the Detroit Red Wings as the 24th best team in the NHL.

That is a drop from the 21st spot the last time they did the rankings.

from Scott Cullen of TSN,

Four wins in the past five games puts the Red Wings in position to take a crossover playoff spot, but losing LW Henrik Zetterberg for the rest of the regular season and C Pavel Datsyuk to more knee troubles sure raises the level of difficulty for a team that has been battling injuries all year.

Garth, I think we have had this discussion in the past, but no mention of any fantasy talk here…

from Scott Cullen of TSN,

The St. Louis Blues, having added Ryan Miller and Steve Ott from Buffalo, remain the No.1-ranked team in the TSN.ca NHL Power Rankings, ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Among the team moving up since the last update, the Los Angeles Kings have won four straight and jump from 12 to eight. The New Jersey Devils are up, from 18 to 13, though they keep going back to goaltender Martin Brodeur, decisions that incrementally undermind their efforts to reach the postseason.

You only need look at Cullen’s methodology, posted plainly for everyone to see, to see that it’s his attempt to make Sagarin-style predictor that accounts for injuries. What purpose this has for fantasy hockey (choosing which teams to start your goalies against?) eludes me.

About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that. Your suggestions and critiques are welcome: wphoulihan@gmail.com